[Assessment] Europe 2020 Flagship Initiative: European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion

Information session on the Committee of the Regions survey (19 February 2013)

Within the context of a comprehensive assessment of the state of play of the Europe 2020 strategy and its flagship initiatives, the Committee of the Regions (CoR) has started preparing a survey on the ’European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion’, as seen from a regional perspective. The result of this survey will feed into a Conference on the same topic that the CoR will hold on 29 May 2013 in Brussels.

The Conference ’European platform against poverty’ on 29 May 2013 aims to collect good practices, and evidence-based cases from different regions. This seminar will be the fourth in a series of CoR events and monitoring initiatives surrounding the mid-term review of Europe 2020 in 2014.

The flagship initiative of "European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion" is a dynamic framework for action which follows the following five principles:

Across the policy spectrum

EU funds for social inclusion

Evidence based approach

Partnership

Policy coordination

This initiative - as part of the Social Investment Package - would contribute to the Europe 2020 poverty target, to reduce the number of people living in poverty by 20 million.

Survey - Assessment of the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion flagship initiative

The Committee of the Regions (CoR) fully backs Europe 2020 and its seven Flagship Initiatives and is eager to support, develop and make progress in each of the key theme areas namely Innovation, Employment, Digitalisation, Climate Change, Globalisation, Education and Poverty.

The European Commission decided to make a mid-term review in 2014. This will enable the EU to assess progress so far and to take additional measures if needed.

To contribute to the forthcoming mid-term review of Europe 2020, the Committee of the Regions invites all EU local and regional authorities to assess the Europe 2020 Flagship Initiatives and their relevance to local and regional actions.

As part of the CoR’s contribution it will be holding a series of conferences covering each of these thematic events from December 2012 – December 2013. In preparation for these events we are inviting local and regional authorities:

1) to complete a brief survey on each of the Flagship Initiatives

2) to share their own success stories and good practises.

The aims of this survey are to:

contribute to the fourth CoR Monitoring Report on Europe 2020, to be published in October 2013

contribute to the CoR’s consultative activity in this field over the coming months

Europe 2020 is managed within the European Semester, an annual planning process to increase economic policy coordination between EU-countries.

In November every year, the European Commission assesses the strategy’s progress with the Annual Growth Survey, proposing orientations for the year to come.

The Spring European Council gives general economic policy priorities for the year, covering both structural and fiscal policies.

In April, EU members states submit their Europe 2020 National Reform Programmes,, together with their Stability and Convergence Programs.

In June-July the Council adopts Country Specific Recommendations.

The Flagship initiatives combine the specific policies towards reaching the Europe 2020 objectives; They are complemented by actions to remove bottlenecks to growth (in the fields of the internal market and infrastructure).

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